The Final Fantasy: Book I
by cleveland.6833
Summary: Four heroes awake from a deep slumber and find themselves in the middle of nowhere, with nothing in sight but a castle far off in the distance and the sound of the sea. All of them have lost their memories of who they used to be, but they do have one thing in common; they are the Warriors of Light, and must save the world of Ladronde. Novelization of the first Final Fantasy game.


**The Final Fantasy**

**Book I**

**Chapter I: Awakening**

In a single instant, Liann Shieldheart went from floating in a cold, subconscious sea of nothingness to feeling the warmth of a seaside summer sun on his face. As his eyes fluttered open and he saw the bright blue sky of Ladronde for the first time in weeks, he realized several things about his current predicament; his skin was sun burnt and painfully peeling, all of his joints felt rusty and immobile, and the only thing that he could remember was his name. An attempt to sit up and get a better look at his surroundings was futile; his back gave out and his arms refused to support him, so he fell back down onto the bed of soft grass that he found himself lying on, with no memory of how he got there. Liann closed his eyes and tried to recall any detail about who he was or how he had gotten to this nameless grassy field, but it was no use. His mind was practically a blank slate at the moment, but surely it couldn't stay that way forever. Looking down at his body gave him one answer to the question of why he had such a hard time getting up; he was wearing an enormous set of heavy red plate armor. Why he had not noticed this earlier he didn't quite know; he supposed that he hadn't really regained all of his mental faculties after being unconscious and losing his memory. What he did know was that he was dreadfully thirsty, and that he desperately needed a drink of water.

With an immense struggle, Liann managed to sit up without passing out, and saw that he wasn't alone; three other people were lying in the grass near him. As he slowly lifted himself onto his wobbling feet, one of the others stirred and woke. The dashing young man who was just now regaining consciousness opened his eyes, rapidly blinked and flitted them from side to side, and then sprang up to his feet as quickly as though he had been lying on a bed of thorns. This man was about a head taller than Liann, and of a much thinner build. A tightly tied green bandana forced a tuft of brown hair down in front of his eyes, which shone with a mischievous emerald that matched his entire outfit. He was dressed like a bandit, all in green with brown leather gloves and boots. He looked inquisitively at Liann for a second or two, then held out his hand.

"Hi there." the man said in a surprisingly calm voice, considering his current predicament. "The name's Thylo Florimel, thief and general scoundrel extraordinaire. And who would you be?"

Liann took Thylo's hand and shook it, blinking and replying, "I'm, uh, Liann Shieldheart." The former was rather put off by the latter's unprompted friendliness, and was suspicious of any man who openly proclaimed himself to be an outlaw and a lawbreaker.

"Liann, hmm? So by the looks of it, you're our resident weapons master, aren't you? A little on the small side, but I'm sure you've got a soldier's mind to make up for it." Liann was unsure of what Thylo meant by this, and the word "our" scared him a little.

"Uh, I suppose so." Liann stammered back. "I'm not quite sure really."

"Well none of us _really _know, do we? I wish that they would let us remember more than just our names though, you know?" Thylo continued. "I don't think that our personal lives would have interfered much with this whole saving-the-world thing...do you?"

Liann shrugged, now completely lost in this one-sided conversation.

"Hey, speaking of which, what element did they stick you with? I got water." Thylo held out his other hand, in which rested a small and very dull blue crystal.

Liann looked at his other hand and realized that he had been holding a crystal of his own. Based on the small cuts on his hands where the sharp edges of the boring brownish crystal were, he had been clutching it very tightly while unconscious.

"Earth, eh?" Thylo inquired rhetorically. "Kinda cool that these are _the_ elemental crystals, huh? They're not quite what they used to be, though."

Liann had had enough. He had stood up to get some water and clear his head, but this Thylo character had been spouting nonsense for too long, and he just wanted answers. "I'm sorry," Liann said, "But I have no idea what you're talking about. This is the Earth Crystal? Did you lose your memory, too? What's going on?"

A big sigh came from Liann's right, and he saw a third person wake up. This one was a female, and a baggy white hooded robe with red trim covered her entire body. She had pretty hazel eyes and long dirty blond hair, which was tucked inside the hood of her robe. As she propped herself up on her arms, she answered Liann's question. "We all lost our memory, including sleepy-head over here." she pointed at the fourth person lying down in the tall grass, then continued. "That dream you had should have explained everything. Don't you remember? My name is Ciosa, by the way. Ciosa Narshelle."

"Ah! The pure White maiden-Mage!" Thylo exclaimed as he rushed over to Ciosa to take her hand and give it a soft kiss. "And I see you were blessed with the Air Crystal! What a pleasure, milady!"

With a great deal of thought, Liann was able to remember the dream that Ciosa had spoken of. He had had it while he was unconscious, just before he woke up in this grassy field, but he had paid it no mind; it was too outlandish. Now, especially since he seemingly held the one and only Earth Crystal in his hand, he had to consider it a reality. In the dream, he was floating in a black and endless space for an indefinite amount of time, when suddenly a voice began speaking to him. He couldn't remember the exact words, but he did recall the gist of the message: he and a group of three other people were to go on an incredible quest to restore the light that once used to shine brightly in the now-dead Elemental Crystals. Over the past couple hundred years, four Fiends had appeared out of nowhere and defiled the Elemental Shrines, darkening the Crystals and throwing the world into chaos. The voices told him of a prophet named Lukahn who had foretold the arrival of four Light Warriors who would defeat the Fiends and bring order back to the world. Of course, Liann knew all of this already; Lukahn, his prophecy, and the rather dire condition that the world was currently in were all common knowledge. The voices weren't finished, however, and proceeded to tell him that he, Liann, would be one of those Light Warriors, and that it was his destiny to carry the Earth Crystal and save the world!

It was easy to understand why Liann paid no attention to the dream, but now, with the Earth Crystal in his hand, no memory of his past life, and three strange people around him, he had to consider the possibility that he might have to save the world. "Resident weapons master", Thylo had said. Was he a soldier in his past life? Judging by the thick armor, large shield, and longsword that he had on his person, it seemed to be so. Ciosa was obviously talented with healing magic, based on the her clothing. Perhaps Thylo was with them because the gods had lost their righteousness and made a common thief a Warrior of Light, he thought to himself with a touch of antagonism. Then there was the fourth member of their party, who seemed to be a very strange character indeed. When Liann tried to get a better look at him, he noticed that the odd little man was actually awake and already staring at him; but he pretended to be unconscious again the moment Liann looked his way. Actually, Liann wasn't entirely sure that this person was a man, or even a human, at all. He wore a deep blue robe that fit him about as poorly as Ciosa's fit her, which draped all the way down to his feet. He also wore a large pointy orange hat with a black band around the middle. His skin was pitch-black, and his eyes were a gleaming yellowish color. This man was not just dark-skinned; his color seemed utterly unnatural.

"So where do you think we are, anyways?" Thylo openly inquired.

"Well, there's a lot of grass," Ciosa replied sarcastically. "It might just be my imagination, but I think I can hear the ocean...and if you look closely enough, there seems to be some kind of a settlement way over there."

"Good eye, my girl!" Thylo guffawed heartily.

"That's Cornelia." the last member of their party had finally decided to join the conversation with a gruff but quiet tone. "You know, the great Kingdom of Cornelia on the southern continent? That "ocean" you hear is the Aldi Sea."

"You sure know your way around." Now Liann decided to pipe up.

"I have an impeccable sense of direction."

"Do you have a name?"

"Jai Dace. In case you're wondering, I've got the Fire Crystal. And as you can see, I'm a Black Mage. I prefer brains over brawn, pain over pleasure, and silence over speech. Are you finished with your questions?"

"Uhm, I suppose so." Liann stuttered, slightly taken aback. His effort to be charismatic and friendly like Thylo had failed miserably.

After an awkward silence, Thylo decided to take charge of the conversation. "Well, since none of us have any personal lives to return to, I suppose we'd better start off on this quest thing, eh? The dream made it obvious that we need to find the Elemental Shrines and take down these Four Fiends, but I personally don't have a damn clue of where any of these Shrines could be. If that really is Cornelia over there, and I'm of the disposition to believe our devilish friend here, then we should be able to get some information there. What do you say, gang? Should we get going?"

"Devilish, eh? Seems like someone doesn't have a healthy appreciation of the more taboo side of the great art of magic." Jai said as he let out a dramatic sigh and slowly got to his feet. "Ugh. I hate crowds."

"Sounds great Thylo!" Ciosa chimed in. "It's not like the Aldi Sea will be any help in finding these Shrines, so Cornelia is our only option. Let's go!"

"Let's be sure to be careful, though," Liann cautioned. "I'm sure these Fiends aren't total morons, and they probably know about Lukahn's prophecy, and our mission. We have to treat these Crystals like gold."

"Have no fear!" Thylo proclaimed as he garishly flexed and stretched his limbs. "We'll be dynamite, I'm sure, and have Ladronde back to its best self in no time!"

As the odd group of four set off towards the barely visible Cornelia far in the distance, Liann couldn't help but think that traveling the world and thwarting the efforts of four monsters who managed to cause such chaos all across the world would be anything but easy.

_Author's note: This is the beginning of a massive project that I'm undertaking, a project that involves novelizing the six Final Fantasy titles for the NES and SNES. I have dabbled a little bit in writing before, but until now I have never planned to completely finish something as much as I do with this. I sincerely hope that you enjoy this short first chapter, and I am also setting you, the readers, an ultimatum; I will only write more to this story if I get no less than five reviews on it. I don't want to be putting time into something if there's no interest for it. And just for legal purposes, I'd like to state that the basic plot and setting for this novelization of the first Final Fantasy game belongs to Square Enix and Nintendo. However, the concepts for the main characters and some of the backstory are of my own invention, since the game isn't the most character-driven one out there._


End file.
